The causes of the depression in Lynn and Haverhill were found to be the extreme novelty shoes in which these two cities specialize, delays in concluding agreements and making wage adjustments, delays in filling orders, cancellation of orders, high piece rates or labor costs as compared with rates and costs in other localities, inability of manufacturers to make a profit and at the same time meet the competition of manufacturers in other States and localities in shoes of like grade and style, and restrictive rules as to hiring and discharging employees.

Time is the important element in the manufacture and sale of the novelty shoes manufactured in Lynn and Haverhill, as orders must be filled on time in order to avoid cancellation of orders and consequent losses. Many orders call for delivery within four or five weeks of ordering. Such shoes, on account of the rapid changes in style, cost more to produce because new patterns, dies, and lasts are necessary for each new style.

Each time a new style is adopted, new piece rates must be set for the various operations. At present, if either side objects to the rates set and representatives of the union and of the employer's association are not able to adjust the differences, the case is submitted to the Haverhill Shoe Board whose decision is final. In Lynn, differences arising owing to change of style have resulted in many strikes and caused considerable loss of work and production. In Haverhill, minor adjustments in piece rates due to change in style have usually been made without cessation of work.

The Haverhill Shoe Board was created by agreement between the employers and workers and is regarded as having rendered great service in promoting peace and harmony between the union and manufacturers, and in improving conditions. All of its decisions have been accepted by both union and manufacturers. Some of these have been reproduced in this report, as have also the agreements now in effect between the Haverhill Manufacturers' Association and the Shoe Workers' Protective Union of Haverhill, between the Lynn Manufacturers' Association and the Amalgamated Shoe Workers of America, and between the Brockton Manufacturers' and the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union.

The various agreements between shoe workers and manufacturers in both Lynn and Haverhill during the period 1920 to 1924 have provided that there shall be no strikes or lockouts. In Haverhill there has been little or no violation of these agreements by the union or the manufacturer, but in Lynn strikes occurred in each of the years, 1920 to 1924, and in nearly every month up to and including July and August, 1924, with such frequency and regularity as to create fear and doubt by customers of the manufacturers as to the ability of Lynn factories to fill orders on time.

Conditions in Lynn are still unsatisfactory, and factories continue to move to other localities in New England. These conditions are due to a considerable extent to lack of harmony between the various locals of the Amalgamated Shoe Workers of America. Three locals have withdrawn from the union, and the feeling between them and the other locals is extremely bitter, and has been the direct cause of numerous petty strikes delaying the work on shoes in process of manufacture and causing cancellation of orders on account

of manufacturers not being able to finish and deliver shoes on time. It is the general opinion that Lynn, the industry, manufacturers, and workers, will continue to suffer as long as the differences between the workers exist.

The working time of shoe workers in Lynn in January and February, 1924, was 45 hours per week, and of those in Haverhill, Brockton, and Boston, 48 per week. The average for Massachusetts was 47.8, this being the lowest average for any State. The average for New York State was 47.9 and for Maine, which had the highest average, 53.4.

The following statement shows how the average hourly earnings in Lynn, Haverhill, and Brockton at the beginning of 1924 compare with those of shoe workers elsewhere:

Lynn and Haverhill shoe workers are, according to their employers, as skillful and efficient as workers in any other locality. They do as much or more work per man per hour and do it as well if not better than shoe workers elsewhere, giving the shoes a style and finish that can not be surpassed, and doing the work with the minimum amount of wear and tear on the machines.

The report analyzes for 6 factories in Haverhill and 11 factories in Lynn the cost of the various items entering into the production of a pair of shoes, from 1920 to 1924. These items include materials, labor, salaries of officials, office clerks, and sales force, rent of buildings, machinery, fuel, light and power, maintenance and repair, interest, taxes, bad accounts, etc.

A

Postwar Labor Conditions in Germany

GENERAL survey of the labor conditions in Germany since the war is given in Bulletin No. 380 of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, just issued. The report covers the standard and cost of living, wages, hours of labor, and unemployment. The general standard of living among the workers after the war was very low. Food, fuel, and clothes were very scarce at first and when imports began, after the blockade ceased, the low level of real wages prevented much improvement. Rents in general have been low because of Government rent restriction. The working class, however, did not actually profit by the low rents, as in fixing wages the employer took into account such low rents. The increasingly high cost of building and the uncertainty regarding the trend of prices of building material and of wages, due to the depreciation of the currency, coupled with the low rents, have resulted in almost no new houses being built.

The working class also paid more in taxes in proportion to their income than the wealthy class, contributing in 1923 and 1924 between 45 and 95 per cent of the income tax, as taxes on their wages were levied before the workers received them, thereby depriving the workers of the advantage of the depreciation of the currency which other taxpayers had.

While nominal wages increased rapidly, real wages were much lower than before the war. The wages of bricklayers, for example, which before the war had been 45 per cent higher than the minimum cost of subsistence, were lower than the minimum cost of subsistence in 28 of the 60 months from January, 1920, to December, 1924. A comparison of wages in various Berlin industries from January to April, 1924 (after the stabilization of the mark), shows that while in general there was an increase in nominal (and real) wages, wages in most trades were lower, in some very much lower, than in pre-war times, while in a few trades they were higher.

The revolution of 1918 led to the general introduction of the maximum 8-hour day by Government provisional orders. There was practically no opposition to the 8-hour day until the summer of 1920, when a big drop in the dollar exchange rate made some groups of employers anxious to reduce costs by lengthening working hours. In August, 1921, employers, especially in the heavy industries, began a movement against the 8-hour day, and on December 21, 1923, the Government issued a decree which, while it maintained the principle of the 8-hour day, permitted certain exceptions by collective agreement and by official permit. An examination of the collective agreements made since the law was passed shows that the working time varies from agreement to agreement, many providing for more than 8 hours per day or 48 hours per week.

Unemployment in the winter of 1918-19 was rather high but from then until the beginning of 1923 it was not really serious for any long period. In 1923, however, conditions took a bad turn and in the winter of 1923-24 unemployment was greater than it has ever been, over 1,500,000 totally unemployed workers and about 850,000 shorttime workers receiving unemployment benefits on January 1, 1924. By the end of 1924 the number of totally unemployed and short-time workers combined receiving such benefits had fallen to a little over 458,000.

The report also covers the minimum cost of subsistence, efficiency of labor, collective agreements, trade-unions, and the cooperative

movement.

TH

Works Council Movement in Germany

HERE is hardly a country which has not been affected by the works council movement, according to a bulletin (No. 383) on the works council movement in Germany recently issued by this bureau. The works councils in Germany correspond roughly to the shop committees in America, except that the latter are bodies of workers' representatives elected by voluntary agreement between employers and workers, while in Germany workers' representation is made compulsory throughout the country by special national legis

lation. However, both systems are intended to allow the workers some degree of participation in the regulation of wages and working conditions.

During their four years of existence, since 1920, the German works councils have dealt with a wide range of social and industrial problems. The duties of the workers' representatives are:

1. To advise with the management for the purpose of securing the highest possible efficiency and the greatest economy of production in the plant.

2. To cooperate with the management in the introduction of new methods of work.

3. To safeguard the industry against labor disturbances.

4. To see that the decisions of the boards of adjustment, or any other mediation agency, are actually carried out.

5. To further the solidarity within the ranks of the employees, as well as between them and the employer, and to uphold the constitutional rights of the workers to organize.

6. To take up the complaints of the employees and to effect their redress through conferences with the employers.

7. To take an active part in all campaigns against industrial accidents and against conditions menacing the health of the workers in the factory; to assist the Government industrial inspectors with advice and proper information and to see that all the police and safety regulations are carried out in the plant.

8. To cooperate with the employer in the administration of the workers' living quarters belonging to the plant, in the administration of the various benefit funds, and in the administration of any other workers' welfare organization.

The works councils in Germany, it is concluded, have come to stay. "They have become an integral part of the economic and social structure of present-day Germany, and no political party or industrial group will dare to put them out of existence on pain of jeopardizing its own life and disturbing the civil peace of the country."

The report covers the history and development of the system, the working of the various types of workers' representation, and the relation between the councils and the trade-unions, and sums up the attitude of employers and trade-unions toward the councils. A short account of workers' representation in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Norway, the other three countries in which such representation is compulsory, is given.

PRICES AND COST OF LIVING

T

Retail Prices of Food in the United States

HE following tables are based on figures which have been received by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from retail dealers through monthly reports of actual selling prices.1

Table 1 shows for the United States retail prices of food for May 15, 1924, and April 15 and May 15, 1925, as well as the percentage changes in the year and in the month. For example, the price per pound of potatoes was 2.9 cents in May, 1924; 2.4 cents in April, 1925; and 2.7 cents in May, 1925. These figures show a decrease of 7 per cent in the year, and an increase of 13 per cent in the month.

The cost of the various articles of food combined shows an increase of 7.5 per cent May 15, 1925, as compared with May 15, 1924, and an increase of 0.6 per cent May 15, 1925, as compared with April 15,

1925.

TABLE 1.-AVERAGE RETAIL PRICES OF SPECIFIED FOOD ARTICLES AND PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE MAY 15, 1925, CO MPARED WITH APRIL 15, 1925, AND MAY 15, 1924

[Percentage changes of five-tenths of 1 per cent and over are given in whole numbers]

1 In addition to monthly retail prices of food and coal, the bureau secures prices of gas and electricity from each of 51 cities. These prices are published at quarterly intervals in the MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW. Retail prices of dry goods were published quarterly until November, 1923.